History of The Oakhill Case

More than 22 months after a Cuyahoga County grand jury unsealed an indictment in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case, we’ve finally come to the trial.

The case centers on an alleged conspiracy between some Mahoning County officials and Anthony Cafaro Sr., a prominent businessman, to stop the 2007 relocation of a Mahoning County agency from a building owned by Cafaro’s company to the county-owned Oakhill.

But it’s not Cafaro on trial.

It’s Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally in his previous capacity as a Mahoning County commissioner, ex-county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, and attorney Martin Yavorcik, a failed 2008 county prosecutor candidate. In charges pursued by state Attorney General Mike DeWine and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, the three face 53 criminal counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, bribery, perjury, money laundering and tampering with records.

The first whispers of the case started in 2007. A special prosecutor presented charges in 2010. That case was then withdrawn a year later due to overlapping evidence issues with a federal investigation involving some of the same suspects.

I’ll be in the courtroom providing gavel-to-gave coverage and much more. Read my reports in The Vindicator, on Vindy.com as well as on Twitter and Facebook.